1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computerized information access and retrieval. More particularly, this invention relates to dynamic organization of browser links to information retrievable over a data network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advances in computer processing power and network capabilities over the past decade, the popularity of graphical user interfaces for viewing information over a network has increased substantially. Most interfaces today use graphics to convey information in a manner that is not only more pleasing to the eye, but also allows data to be manipulated and presented in ways not possible with pure text.
The first graphical user interfaces for networks were primitive and not entirely intuitive. A user would have to type complex commands to select the data to be displayed or to change the manner the data is displayed. Searches also required complex commands that were not very different from those used for text-based interfaces. However, searches were often the only way to find the desired data, since these primitive interfaces were not able to take full advantage of the links, to the extent that they existed, to quickly move a user from one set of data to another related set of data.
Today, browsers with graphical user interfaces are often used for viewing data across a network. Examples of popular browsers being used today are Mozilla Firefox™ and Microsoft® Internet Explorer™. Today's browsers can take advantage of links between related sets of data, and use these links to navigate among the various sets, including going up and down data hierarchies and revisiting previously viewed data.
While browsers and their graphical user interfaces are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the underlying data itself has become more complex. Data may be organized into huge databases of information that is spread across a network. Data may be organized into objects, including applications and related files, or groups thereof. This data may be organized in larger hierarchies, often many levels deep.
It has become a challenge to locate desired data in a clear and efficient manner through networks. Browsers can display only a limited amount of information on a user's screen at any given time. Although most browsers allow users to create bookmarks for a given set of data, bookmarks are not automatically created, and require extra effort to generate. Many browsers also keep a list of recently accessed data, but users are then required to have the list displayed on the screen (taking up valuable screen space) and then remember which set of data is the desired set, or manually set up searches for desired links or data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,434,564, issued to Ebert, whose disclosure is herein incorporated by reference, describes a browser for viewing data organized in a hierarchical structure in which a user can interact with links to the data. A retrieved set of data is displayed in a “lens”, and subsequently retrieved sets of data that are deeper in the hierarchical structure are displayed in further stacked lenses, creating a visual representation of the hierarchy. A label on each lens provides information on the data originally displayed in the lens.